Digital Commons Network^™

Investing In Community: A Playbook For Connecting Economic And Skills Development, Timothy J. Bartik, Brad J. Hershbein, Michelle Miller-Adams, Lee Adams, Amy Meyers, Bridget Timmeney

Reports

No abstract provided.

Is Fish Brain Food Or Brain Poison? Sea Surface Temperature, Methyl-Mercury And Child Cognitive Development, Mark R. Rosenzweig, Rafael J. Santos

Discussion Papers

We exploit variation in the composition of local fish catches around the time of birth using largescale administrative and census data on adult cognitive test scores, schooling attainment, and occupation among coastal populations in Colombia to estimate the distinct causal effects of methylmercury (MeHg) and DHA, elements contained in fish, on cognitive development. Using an IV strategy based on an equilibrium model of fish supply that exploits time-series variation in oceanic SST anomalies on both coasts of Colombia from 1950 to 2014 as instruments, we find that net of cohort and municipality fixed effects increases in high-MeHg fish catches around …

The (Unfilled) Fintech Potential, Aluma Zernik

Notre Dame Journal on Emerging Technologies

Part I explores the idea that technology has the utopian potential to significantly improve the way individuals make financial decisions. Part II discusses some existing market failures, while presenting the potential of technological innovation in resolving such failures. Part III presents the realized potential of such innovative products, analyzing the design of credit card comparison websites, financial management tools, and mobile wallets. I will demonstrate the significant benefits of such products, and yet the limited realization of the potential advantages of such services. Part IV presents several explanations for why such potential is not being fully realized. These explanations may …

The Importance Of Cognitive Domains And The Returns To Schooling In South Africa: Evidence From Two Labor Surveys, Plamen Nikolov, Nusrat Jimi

Economics Faculty Scholarship

Numerous studies have considered the important role of cognition in estimating the returns to schooling. How cognitive abilities affect schooling may have important policy implications, especially in developing countries during periods of increasing educational attainment. Using two longitudinal labor surveys that collect direct proxy measures of cognitive skills, we study the importance of specific cognitive domains for the returns to schooling in two samples. We instrument for schooling levels and we find that each additional year of schooling leads to an increase in earnings by approximately 18-20 percent. The estimated effect sizes—based on the two-stage least squares estimates—are above the …

Fighting Money Politics And Shamanic Practices, Guno Tri Tjahjoko

Jurnal Politik

This study aims to describe the efforts of female candidates to break the practice of money politics and the influence of shamans in the 2018 Sriharjo subdistrict election (pilkades). The author used qualitative methods with a case study of the Sriharjo village-head election in Bantul Regency. The author collected primary data through interviews, in-depth group discussions, and observations. Secondary data were collected through a literature review, online articles, photos, and video studies of the pilkades process. The findings of this study show the practice of money politics carried out by “snipers,” whose job is to distribute envelopes containing money from …

The Coal Industry And Funding Support For Elementary And Secondary Education In Appalachia: A Descriptive Analysis, Jilleah G. Welch, Matthew N. Murray

Coal Industry Effects on Education

This is the first of two reports exploring the relationship between coal activity and funding for elementary and secondary education in the Appalachian Region. In this first report, patterns in funding for elementary and secondary education are explored using annual data from 1995 to 2016. Counties that had some level of coal employment over this time period (coal counties) are compared to counties that had no coal employment over the same time (non-coal counties). Through a descriptive analysis, we find that educational attainment rates in the Appalachian Region lag behind national rates, often by a significant margin. There is considerable …

Chain Restaurant Calorie Posting Laws, Obesity, And Consumer Welfare, Charles J. Courtemanche, David Frisvold, David Jimenez-Gomez, Mariétou H. Ouayogodé, Michael Price

Institute for the Study of Free Enterprise Working Papers

The 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) introduced a mandate requiring chain restaurants to post calorie counts on menus and menu boards. This paper investigates whether and why calorie posting laws work. To do so, we develop a model of calories consumed that highlights two potential channels through which mandates influence choice and outlines an empirical strategy to disentangle these alternatives. We test the predictions of our model using data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System to compare changes in body mass index (BMI), obesity, and consumer well-being in locations that implemented calorie-posting laws between 2008 and …

Changes In Assortative Matching And Inequality In Income: Evidence For The Uk, Pierre-André Chiappori, Monica Costa-Dias, Sam Crossman, Costas Meghir

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

The extent to which like-with like marry is important for inequality as well as for the outcomes of children that result from the union. In this paper we present evidence on changes in assortative mating and its implications for household inequality in the UK. Our approach contrasts with others in the literature in that it is consistent with an underlying model of the marriage market. We argue that a key advantage of this approach is that it creates a direct connection between changes in assortativeness in marriage and changes in the value of marriage for the various possible matches by …

Estimating Residential Water Demand In A Relocation Area With Inadequate Piped Water System, Rosalina Palanca-Tan

Economics Department Faculty Publications

This paper assesses household water demand and estimates a demand equation particularly for low-income households in the Philippines. The study uses survey data on the value and volume of household water purchases from different water providers in a government resettlement area. The paper provides empirical evidence on the impact of average water price on household water consumption, as well as the effects of household income and size on household water consumption. The study finds that households buying water from jetmatic pump wells and water tankers pay more than five times that of those served by the piped water system. This …

Traffic Congestion In F.C.T: Demand And Supply Approach, Ibrahim Abdul, Salihu Habibu Mohammed Gani, Ibrahim G. Umaru

Bullion

This study examined traffic congestion in Abuja metropolis, F.C.T.- Nigeria using demand and supply approach. The study adopted survey research design. Primary data was collected using questionnaires. Descriptive statistics was used to analysed the data with the aid of tables and graphs. It was discovered that as a road reaches its capacity, each additional vehicle imposes more total delay on others than they bear, resulting in excessive traffic volumes. Congestion is mainly due to the intensive use of automobiles, whose ownership has spread massively in the F.C.T. in recent decades. The study revealed that traffic congestion causes serious consequences in …

Disruptive Effects Of The Coronavirus – Errors Of Commission And Of Omission?, John Pourdehnad, Larry M. Starr, Venard Scott Koerwer, Harry Mccloskey

School of Continuing and Professional Studies Coronavirus Papers

It is increasingly evident that the coronavirus disease, COVID-19, is more than a health problem; it is and will continue to adversely affect work and workplaces, education, families and social engagements, political and environmental dimensions, and financial indicators. Apart from its health ramifications, the crisis is revealing serious challenges in the global supply chain. Those difficulties are, at least in part, consequences of unwise, short-sighted business decisions made over the course of decades to outsource and downsize.

Pandemic Lockdown Must Fail: Save Lives Without Crippling The Economy, Larry Hirschhorn, Phd

School of Continuing and Professional Studies Coronavirus Papers

In the following working paper, I want to make a plea for what I am calling a “reverse quarantine”—quarantining people who are over 65 (who number 52 million), before they get sick. We need to complement this policy with federally funded and locally organized efforts to support seniors in place, drawing on the wellsprings of American pragmatism, the capacity to respond in emergencies, American volunteerism, and neighbor-to-neighbor assistance. We can’t turn quarantine into imprisonment. We must work as hard as we can to create a psychological sense of community at a moment when, paradoxically, social distancing is driving us apart. …

Globalisation And Government Size In Nigeria: A Revisit Of The Compensation Hypothesis, P. I. Nwosa, T. O. Akinbobola

Economic and Financial Review

The link between globalisation and government expenditure has remained contentious in the literature particularly from a disaggregated perspective. Hence, this study examines the compensation hypothesis by analysing the relationship between globalisation and government size in Nigeria for the period 1981 to 2018. Globalisation is proxied by trade and financial openness while government size is measured by final consumption expenditure by the general government (FCE), share of government expenditure on economic services (ECO), share of government expenditure on social and community services (SCS), and share of government expenditure on transfers (TRF). The study employed the error correction modelling technique and the …

Are The Goals Of Sustainability Interconnected? A Sociological Analysis Of The Three E’S Of Sustainable Development Using Cross-Lagged Models With Reciprocal Effects, Matthew Thomas Clement, Nathan Pino, Patrick Greiner, Julius A. Mcgee

Sociology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Conceptual discussions of sustainability emphasize the interdependent relationship between relevant social and environmental factors. Yet, traditional quantitative analyses of the topic have tended to estimate the exogenous or direct/indirect effects a predictor variable has on a particular measure of sustainability. We examine the endogenous, interdependent relationship between the three E’s of sustainability (economy, equity, and ecology), incorporating country-level data for 1990 through 2015 into cross-lagged structural equation models with reciprocal and fixed effects. Results from these longitudinal models suggest that over time, at the country level, increasing economic inequality reduces renewable energy consumption, with no evidence of reciprocal feedback. Keeping …

Borderplex Business Barometer, Volume 4, Number 3, Thomas M. Fullerton Jr., Steven L. Fullerton, Ana Gutierrez Zubiate, Ignacio Santana

Border Region Modeling Project

No abstract provided.

The Political-Economy Trilemma, Joshua Aizenman, Hiro Ito

Economics Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper investigates Rodrik’s political-economy trilemma: policy makers face a trade-off of choosing two out of three policy goals or governance styles, namely, (hyper-) globalization, national sovereignty, and democracy. We develop a set of indexes that measure the extent of attainment of the three factors for 139 countries in the period of 1975-2016. Using these indexes, we examine the validity of the hypothesis of the political-economy trilemma by testing whether the three trilemma variables are linearly related. We find that, for industrialized countries, there is a linear relationship between globalization and national sovereignty (i.e., a dilemma), and that for developing …

Coastal Empire Economic Monitor, 4th Quarter, 2020, Georgia Southern University Center For Business Analytics And Economic Research

Coastal Empire Economic Monitor

The Economic Monitor provides a continuously updated quarterly snapshot of the Savannah Metropolitan Statistical Area economy, including Bryan, Chatham, and Effingham counties in Georgia. The coincident index measures the current economic heartbeat of the region. The leading index is designed to provide a short-term forecast of the region's economic activity in the upcoming six to nine months.

A Computable General Equilibrium Modeling Of The Economic Effects Of Reducing Non-Tariff Measures In The Malaysian Food Sector, Siew Hoon Yew

Student Works (2020-2029)

The Malaysian food processing sector is highly regulated with non-tariff measures (NTMs), and particularly with standard NTMs applied to imports. Though these measures are used for legitimate reasons such as health and safety, some appear to have been instituted for political reasons and serve as “hidden” barriers to trade, given this sector is highly import intensive. This sector is therefore considered to be over regulated and it is argued that a reduction of restrictive NTMs and non-tariff barriers (NTBs) is needed to facilitate trade. Since NTMs, in general, are opaque and less transparent relative to tariffs, they pose a significant …

Refusal Bias In Hiv Data From The Demographic And Health Surveys: Evaluation, Critique And Recommendations, Oyelola A. Adegboye, Tomoki Fujii, Denis H. Y. Leung

Research Collection School Of Economics

Non-response is a commonly encountered problem in many population-based surveys. Broadly speaking, non-response can be due to refusal or failure to contact the sample units. Although both types of non-response may lead to bias, there is much evidence to indicate that it is much easier to reduce the proportion of non-contacts than to do the same with refusals. In this article, we use data collected from a nationally representative survey under the Demographic and Health Surveys program to study non-response due to refusals to HIV testing in Malawi. We review existing estimation methods and propose novel approaches to the estimation …

Welfare Consequences Of Access To Health Insurance For Rural Households: Evidence From The New Cooperative Medical Scheme In China, Jessica Ya Sun

Research Collection School Of Economics

This study evaluates the welfare benefits of the New Cooperative Medical Scheme (NCMS), the main public health insurance plan for the rural population in China. The findings show that the value of the NCMS to recipients is slightly lower than the government's costs of implementation, ranging from 0.79 to 0.97 per RMB of the resource cost of the NCMS. The estimated moral hazard costs are low compared with the total benefits. It is also estimated that the benefits originating from the NCMS's insurance function only constitute 20% of the total benefits, suggesting a need for higher generosity levels among rural …

Three Essays On The Economics Of Education, Tianheng Wang

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation consists of three essays related to the field of economics of education. In chapter 2, using data from middle school students in China and exploiting the random assignment of students to classrooms within schools, I investigate the causal effect of peer groups on students’ scholastic achievement. I find that female student proportion in the classroom positively affects male students’ test scores and that the education level of peers’ parents improves the academic achievement of both male and female students. Students with highly-educated parents benefit more from classmates with higher parental education compared to students with relatively lower parental …

Cancer Mortality Risk, Fine Particulate Air Pollution, And Smoking In A Large, Representative Cohort Of Us Adults, Nathan Coleman

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Abstract

Purpose: Multiple studies have indicated that air pollution and smoking are associated with various types of mortality, including cancer. The current study utilizes a publicly accessible, nationally representative cohort to explore relationships between fine particulate matter (PM_2.5) exposure, smoking, and cancer mortality.

Methods: National Health Interview Survey and mortality follow-up data were combined to create a study population of 635,539 individuals surveyed from 1987 to 2014. A sub-cohort of 341,665 never-smokers from the full cohort was also evaluated. Individuals were assigned modeled PM_2.5 exposure. Cox proportional hazard models were utilized to estimate hazard ratios for cancer-specific …

Book Review: The Third Pillar: How Markets And The State Leave The Community Behind, George Morrow

Essays in Education

Rajan, Raghuram (2019). The Three Pillars: How Markets and the State Leave the Community Behind. New York: Penguin.

Mr. Rajan explains the success and failure of societies through the interrelationship of three social sciences (what he calls pillars): economics (the marketplace), political science (government), and sociology (communities). In Section I, Mr. Rajan describes the origins of each pillar starting at the end of the medieval era. Each pillar has its own tale related to it social science but their stories are interwoven as well. An example: the marketplace and the expansion of trade (both territorially and in complexity) could only …

Congenital Chagas Disease In The United States: The Effect Of Commercially Priced Benznidazole On Costs And Benefits Of Maternal Screening, Victoria Perez-Zetune, Stephanie R. Bialek, Susan P. Montgomery, Eileen Stillwaggon

Economics Faculty Publications

Chagas disease, caused by Trypanosoma cruzi, is transmitted by insect vectors, and through transfusions, transplants, insect feces in food, and mother to child during gestation. An estimated 30% of infected persons will develop lifelong, potentially fatal cardiac or digestive complications. Treatment of infants with benznidazole is highly efficacious in eliminating infection. This work evaluates the costs of maternal screening and infant testing and treatment for Chagas disease in the United States, including the cost of commercially available benznidazole. We compare costs of testing and treatment for mothers and infants with the lifetime societal costs without testing and consequent morbidity and …

The Outdoor Recreation Economy In The Mountain West, Kaylie Pattni, Ember Smith, Caitlin Saladino, William E. Brown

Economic Development & Workforce

This fact sheet provides select data from the State Outdoor Recreation Satellite Account (ORSA) at the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) to highlight the outdoor recreation economy in the Mountain West region, including Nevada, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado.

Increasing Health Tourism Spending In The United States, Jorge Ridderstaat, Dipendra Singh

Rosen Research Review

An increasing number of people are taking advantage of health tourism to access medical services abroad. For the U.S. to be competitive in the lucrative health tourism environment, it is essential to target the right markets. Until now the information available to do this has been limited. This knowledge gap is being addressed by Dr. Jorge Ridderstaat and Dr. Dipendra Singh from Rosen College of Hospitality Management and colleagues. These researchers have developed a microeconomic elasticity approach that offers an understanding of the effects of individual tourism markets on the total health tourism spending in the U.S.

The Effect Of Good Samaritan Laws (Gsl) On Opioid Overdose Mortality, Tarun Ramesh

Undergraduate Economic Review

This paper investigates the effects of Good Samaritan Laws on opioid overdose mortality rates in the United States. Evaluating policy interventions in response to upticks in opioid mortality is crucial to enact federal legislation that protects communities. However, concerns about moral hazard implications could have profound impacts on current efforts to combat the epidemic. This paper will look at various policies proposed and evaluate the effects of such policies on overall mortality rates, elucidating the moral hazard effects of Good Samaritan Laws.

Categorical Salience Theory, Mark Schneider, Cary Deck, Patrick Dejarnette

ESI Working Papers

Monetary lotteries are the overwhelmingly predominant tool for understanding decisions under risk. However, many real-world decisions concern multidimensional out- comes involving different goods. Recent studies have tested whether people treat multidimensional risky choices in the same manner as unidimensional monetary lotteries and found that choices over consumer goods are less risk-averse and more consistent with expected utility theory than choices over monetary lotteries. While these puzzling results cannot be explained by any standard model of decision making, we demonstrate that these findings are predicted by a salience-based model of category-dependent preferences that also explains the classic anomalies for choices under …

Economic Segregation, Inequality, And The New Urban Crisis In The Mountain West, Ember Smith, Caitlin Saladino, William E. Brown

Housing & Real Estate

This fact sheet highlights economic segregation, inequality, and the effect of the “New Urban Crisis” in the Mountain West region (Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah) as computed and analyzed by Richard Florida in The New Urban Crisis: How Our Cities are Increasing Inequality, Deepening Segregation, and Failing the Middle Class- and What We Can Do About it.

Temperature And Economic Activity: Evidence From India, Anuska Jain, Róisín O'Sullivan, Vis Taraz

Economics: Faculty Publications

This paper investigates the impact of temperature on economic activity in India, using state-level data from 1980–2015. We estimate that a 1 ◦C increase in contemporaneous temperature (relative to our sample mean) reduces the economic growth rate that year by 2.5 percentage points. The adverse impact of higher temperatures is more severe in poorer states and in the primary sector. Our analysis of lagged temperatures suggests that our effects are driven by the contemporaneous effect of temperature on output; we do not find evidence of a permanent impact of contemporaneous temperatures on future growth rates.